Category: substantial assistance

I was set up
As a criminal defense lawyer, I hear this all the time. This is particularly true in drug cases involving sale or delivery of pills, marijuana or heroin. A person you thought was your friend hooked you up with a cop and you did something stupid. Often, an old friend comes to you and as a favor you try and get him some smoke (weed), some Oxycontin or some heroin. Before you know it, you are charged with trafficking in a controlled substance and find yourself facing a minimum mandatory sentence in State prison. How does this happen?
When people get arrested for drugs, they do whatever they have to in order to save themselves. If they are charged with trafficking in cocaine, trafficking in marijuana or trafficking in heroin, they know they may be able to work their way out of a jail sentence by rendering what they call “substantial assistance” to the police. They set up their friends. As a criminal lawyer, I have seen cases where the drug dealer himself gets arrested, and then to save himself, sets up his customers. The police don’t care. Fairness has nothing to do with the criminal justice system. Prosecutors want to win. Police want to win. In the real world if you want justice you have to fight for it. In the real world people lie all the time to save themselves. As a Sarasota criminal defense attorney I have spent thirty years of my life fighting the system and fighting for my clients. You would like to think that the truth matters. You would like to think that in Court, when people swear to tell the truth, particularly, police officers, they will. People lie under oath all the time. Sometimes police lie about how they stopped you. Sometimes police lie and say you made an admission or consented to a search of your car. My job is to expose lies and win your case. This only happens if we can prove it. There is a myth that people are presumed innocent. Sure, it says that in the law, but in the real world, in a courtroom, the deck is stacked against you. Jurors start off believing you must have done something wrong or you would not have been arrested.
You have to fight back. You have to expose the lies and if you want to win, you better have a real fighter in your corner. Nothing is impossible…Call 941 366 3506